Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

“Is there a continuing ‘European ideal’?” asks the paper’s former editor, Peter Preston.

“Perhaps, in the rather leaden rhetoric that prefaces the constitutional treaty.

“But everybody, every nation state, is first and foremost in it for themselves and for the benefits, real or perceived, that follow.”

Concludes Preston: “The Brussels summit was a disaster waiting to happen; with no guarantee that Dublin will be any better. Even if a constitutional treaty does emerge in the end, it’s likely that a referendum (in Ireland, France or one of the other five countries committed to that vote) will bring another hiatus. Europe is banging its head against the stone wall of the possible.”

Not sure what that last line means, but it sounds deep.

Germans, apparently, are glum about more than just being the EU’s paymaster in a time of economic stagnation.

They’re naturally gloomy and need to lighten up, according to their president.

Johannes Rau says in an interview with the Foreign Press Association that his compatriots need to stop being so grim.

“Germans sometimes leave a general impression of being broody,” he said, adding that the looks on their faces makes him think they’re suffering indigestion.

“Germans walk around looking as if they have too much gastric acid. I wish they’d relax more.”

Boredom, rather than gloom, is being blamed for the mischief three German teenagers got up to last week: spending €130 million in a two-hour internet shopping spree.

The 19-year-olds bought light aircraft, patents, industrial machinery, restaurants and artwork after hacking into an account on an internet auction site.

“They gave boredom as the motive and made no attempt to disguise what fun they had buying only the most expensive things,” said police in the western town of Limburg, according to Reuters.

Speaking of e-commerce, ever wonder who falls prey to those emails from Nigeria asking for your bank account number and promising to make you rich?

Just go to Thurso, Scotland, where a pharmacy is being inundated with victims of the hoax from around the world. The address of the chemist’s shop had been given to them as a bank from which they would be able to withdraw untold riches after making their initial investments.

Pharmacy manager Andrew Paterson said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that people from as far away as Norway and New Zealand were calling in to demand their money back.

“We had a Mediterranean couple come in looking for a bank,” he said. “After a while we suggested maybe they should go round to the police. They did seem a little upset about it.”

American Arlen Hughes was told he would inherit $41 million if he paid $57,000 up front.

“I received a call from a fella in Nigeria saying that I had inherited an oil company,” he told Today.

“They were very professional.”

Finally, anyone who thinks the Danish welfare state is too cushy should consider this: it does not, repeat, does not extend to providing Viagra to prison inmates.

Agence France Presse reports that two Danish wardens have been reprimanded by the country’s justice minister for handing out free sex pills.

“If inmates want Viagra to be administered to them by the prison doctor they must pay for it themselves like every other citizen on the outside,” said Lene Espersen in a letter to a far-right MP who complained about the practice.

So much for doing hard time…

Craig Winneker is editor of TCS International (www.TechCentralStation.com), a Brussels-based website.